Method of manufacturing brake hangers



June 7, 1932. F. SCHAEFER 1,862,281

METHOD OF MANUFACTURING BRAKE HANGERS Filed Aug. 50, 1950 I .10 v 10 c M ,1 5

' it M v WITNESSES INVENTOR Malac a! 13 M SW Patented June 7, 1932 UNITED STTE FREDERIC SGI-IAEFECR, OF PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA METHOD OF MANUFACTUR I NG BRAKE HANGERS Application filed August 30, 1930. Serial No. 479,073.

My invention pertains to brake hangers, such as are used for suspending the brake beams of railroad cars and the like, and relates especially to brake hangers of the U type in which a pair of legs having suspension eyes at their upper ends are connected at their lower ends by a yoke for pivotally engaging the brake beam.

Brake hangers of the U type are most economically manufactured by bending a straight bar, of uniform cross section, to the U form, in which the transverse or yoke portion lies at right angles to the legs. A common method of obtaining the right-angled U shape is to bend the bar twice at right angles to itself, a suitable radius, of course, being provided at the bends. This method of obtaining the U shape, however, is liable to result in a localized harmful derangement of the fibers of the metal, especially at the insides and outsides of the bends, and break ages of the hangers have frequently been traced to this cause.

With the above in view, it is the object of my invention to provide a method of bending the bar to produce the required right-angled U shape in which the derangement of the fibers of the metal will be much less than heretofore, with the result that the strength of the resulting brake hanger is materially increased. 1

I have described in the following specification my improved method of manufacturing U type brake hangers and have shown the various steps thereof in the accompanying drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 shows the blank bar after the upsetting of its ends to provide sufiicient metal for the. suspension eyes;

Fig. 2 shows the blank bar after its ends have been forged to produce the suspension eyes;

Fig. 3 shows the blank after having been preliminarily bent Fig. 4 shows the blank after having been finally bent to the right-angled U shape;

Fig. 5 shows the completed brake hanger produced by a forging operation upon the corners of the blank shown in Fig. 4; and

Fig. 6 is a section on the line VI-VI of Fig. 5.-

In producing a U type brake hanger in accordance with my improved method, a rod of suitable length and of a diameter equal to that required for the members of the brake hanger is first upset at its ends, as indicated at 10 in Fig. 1, to provide suflicient metal for the suspension eyes. Such upset ends are then forged to produce the suspension eyes 11, shown in Fig. 2.

After having been made ready as above described. the bar is bent upon itself so as to form two parallel legs 12 connected'by an arcuate transverse member 13 taking the shape of a curved base for the U (Fig. 3), the length of such arcuate transverse member be ing chosen with particularity, as set forth below, and the legs being spaced apart by a lesser distance than will be the case in the finished hanger. By suitable dies, the legs 12 are then moved away from each other until they are separated by the distance which is required in the completed brake hanger, and, at the same time, the arcuate transverse member 13 is forced upwardly and caused to take the straight horizontal form shown in Fig. 4, a suitable radius, about centers indicated at a, being provided at the corners. Thereupon, by a suitable forging or pressing operation, the diameter of the legs is reduced at the insides adjacent the corners, the surplus metal being caused to flow outwardly so as to produce strengthening ribs 14 which extend outwardly around the corners and merge into the legs and yoke.

The length of the arcuate portion 13, as produced by the first bending operation (Fig. 3) is so chosen that its medial line b, 0, d, will be of substantially equal length to the medial line 6, f, g, h, of the finished yoke (Fig. 4;) and the curved corners which connect such yoke with the legs. By thus bending the part of the bar which is to constitute the yoke and corners to a preliminary arcuate form, and selecting thelength of such part as above described, it follows that there will be no localized change of length during the bending of this part of the bar to produce the corners and straight yoke of the finished hanger. By

this preliminary bending of part of the bar to arcuate form, the reduction and stretching of the fibers at the inside and outside respectively of the hanger is distributed over a conw siderable length of the bar, so that when the bar is finally bent so as to producetheflatyoke shown in Fig. 4: there is no material reduction of the fibers of the metal at the insides, or stretching thereof at the outsides, of the corners. In this manner loss of strength of the hanger at the corners, due to the bending of the metal, is reduced considerably, and the likelihood of breakage at the corners is minimized.

I claim:

' The method of manufacturing a brake hanger having legs and a straight transverse yokeconnected between said legs by means of curved corner portions, which consists inwbending a bar to produce legs spaced apart bya distance less than the distance to separate the legs of the finishedhanger, saidlegs. being joined by an arcuate portion of a-medial length substantially equal to the medial wlength to be had-by the straight yoke andcurved corner portions of the finished hanger,

and .then forcing said legs vap art and straightening the center part of sa-id'arcuate portion.

In testimony whereof, I sign my name.

an FREDERIC SCHAEFER. 

